Bush accuses leak instigators of helping enemy

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A FEISTY and sometimes angry George Bush has accused those who
leaked the fact he had authorised wiretaps on hundreds, perhaps
thousands, of Americans without judicial warrants, of having
compromised US security.

In his last White House press conference for the year, the
President said that the constitution and the resolutions by
Congress that had authorised military action in Afghanistan and
Iraq gave him the legal power to bypass laws that required approval
from a special court for wiretaps by the National Security Agency
on Americans.

In contrast to his sombre, even contrite tone during his address
to the nation on Iraq from the Oval Office, Mr Bush switched
between anger, exasperation and grim humour as he emphatically
rejected any suggestion that he had acted illegally.

Insisting that the spying by the highly secretive NSA had been
essential in the war against terrorism, Mr Bush said: "It was a
shameful act for someone to disclose this important program in a
time of war."

He added: "The fact that we're discussing this program is
helping the enemy."

However, Democrats and even some Republicans, including Arlen
Specter, the Republican chairman of the powerful Senate Judiciary
Committee, have questioned the legality of the wiretaps and have
promised congressional hearings when Congress returns in
January.

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, passed by Congress in
1978 after the revelation of widespread abuses of wiretaps by J.
Edgar Hoover's FBI, requires warrants from a special court for any
wiretaps on Americans.

President Bush said that the events of September 11, 2001, and
the failure of American intelligence agencies to expose the
terrorist plot, had made it necessary to "move more quickly" than
the legislation made possible.

"We've got to be fast on our feet," he said. " It is legal for
us to do so. I swore to uphold the laws and legal authority is
derived from the constitution. I just want to assure the American
people that I have the authority to do this."

Mr Bush was scathing in his criticism of senators who had
stalled passage of the Patriot Act, the US domestic anti-terrorism
laws passed in the wake of the September 11 attacks, but which had
several controversial provisions that were due to expire at the end
of this year.

In an indirect reference to Harry Reid, the Democrat leader in
the Senate and Hillary Clinton, the frontrunner for the Democratic
nomination in the 2008 presidential election, Mr Bush said: "I want
senators from Las Vegas or New York to explain why these
cities are safer after they refused to pass the Patriot Act."

The spying controversy, which flared last week after The New
York Times revealed details of what had been a highly secret
operation, has overshadowed what even Democrats concede was the
landmark general election in Iraq.

The controversy followed revelations about secret CIA prisons in
Eastern Europe and Asia where suspected al-Qaeda members were taken
for interrogation and Mr Bush's backdown on his threat to veto
legislation proposed by Senator John McCain that outlaws "cruel and
inhumane" treatment of prisoners held by the US military and
civilian agencies, including the CIA.

There was some good news for Mr Bush amid all the controversy,
with a Washington Post poll showing that his approval rating
had surged in the wake of the Iraqi elections.

His approval rating rose to 47 per cent, up from 39 per cent in
November and up 10 points to 46 per cent approving his handling of
the war in Iraq.

In addition, 56 per cent said they approved of the way Mr Bush
was handling terrorism.